5,723,0025,190,0334,976,2625,466,2515,628,7725,409,5005,304,2164,981,1355,052,3875,000,1765,020,536H7594,688,5724,628,932
This invention relates to medical or sports cold/compress therapy and more specifically pertains to the combined use of the latent heat of fusion of water or other aqueous solutions coupled with a conformable compress to aid in the treatment and recovery of injured muscle, tissue, tendon, or cartilage.
It is widely accepted and well known that cooling an injured area along with mild compression of the same area is an effective means of limiting or reducing swelling and may also help to decrease recovery time. Generally, this is done by filling a plastic bag with ice and manually holding the bag in place and applying pressure. The two major problems with this are that it is inconvenient and messy. Many inventions have sought to alleviate either one or both of these problems through a variety of designs. Examples of these are laid out below and in the description of the ICE Power Pack system it will become evident how it improves on all of the following patents.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,628,932; 4,976,262; 5,000,176; 5.020,536; 5,052,387; 5,466,251; 5,723,002 are all designs for holding an ice pack in place. These designs may all serve their function to secure an ice pack in one place but none of them make any reference to insulation which would allow the ice/cold pack to remain effective for a longer period of time. These designs also all require that the user manually fill and insert into the holder the cold pack which causes the ice packs to be inconvenient. Another problem with these inventions is that they only allow for the insertion of a minimal number of large ice/cold packs. This means that the water or slush contained within the cold/ice packs is free to move about and is thus unable to maintain constant intimate contact with the entire surface of the body part you wish to treat.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,190,033 uses a plurality of hollow spherical capsules filled with a gel or fluid that is chilled in a freezer or refrigerator. It fails to recognize the need to covert the fluid or gel to a solid. Solidifying the encapsulated water or aqueous solution is fundamental to our patent in order to take advantage of the heat of fusion of the solid. This patent has been abandoned for non-payment of maintenance fees.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,572 states that insulating the ice pack would “thwart the transfer of coldness to the injured limb.” This statement is not supported by any further language indicating how this conclusion was reached and is both illogical and incorrect. The thermodynamic laws clearly show that heat is what is transferred, not coldness.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,135 is a design for a heating/cooling therapeutic thermal cuff that provides insulating layers and a means for securing the cuff to the body but the therapeutic inserts consist of a single bladder that has been quilted with parallel lines and thus does not allow for constant and direct contact on any bending joint such as a knee.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,304,216; H759; U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,500 are all designs for an ice pack and a holder but they have a common problem in that they specify the use of some sort of refrigerant gel that does not undergo a phase change and thus does not have a thermal plateau. The phase change is necessary for the cold pack to effectively treat an injured area at a constant medically safe temperature for extended periods of time.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,772 uses a plurality of balls within a plastic pouch but specifically requires the use of a gel, BlueIce.RTM, stating that it is better because an “ice/water solution rapidly attains the temperature of the underlying area being treated.” This statement is incorrect. An ice/water equilibrium is maintained for long periods of time due to the extraordinarily high latent heat of fusion of ice. The lack of validity of the statement in this patent supports our claim that the ICE Power Pack System is a new and improved product. The Power Pack provides a significant therapeutic treatment period in the safe temperature zone, as compared to a gel such as BlueIce.RTM and other gels and slushes.